Note: the views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Looxii the company.
Working in the field of social media has taught me many valuable lessons, but it has been hard to ignore the sheer number of experts and robots that automatically follow me on Twitter any time I mention the term “social media.” In fact social media posts about social media have become the meta-discourse of the modern age. The buzz around social media started slowly and picked up steam as different services (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, et al) made headlines over the last decade or so. This increase in chatter culminated when marketers and corporations got into the mix, creating an environment like that of the SEO field, with experts who tout their page rank skills at every introduction.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t real experts and that many of the people that you meet working in the field are not legitimate, rather there are good approaches and bad approaches. Take for example the organization/individual that serves as a social media consultant. As more businesses test the waters of social media, consultants can be great resources for educating staff members on social media best practices or running, conceiving and quantifying entire social media campaigns.
What they shouldn’t do is provide a cloaked service to you or your business. Transparency is important throughout the process, and gives you and your organization the ability to learn from their methods. Often, it merely takes participation in social networks and a bit of learning some good approaches to social media to get started.
Social media marketing is actually quite different from SEO, because your target is not a search bot, but living humans. So in this sense, getting involved in social media does not require advanced computer skills. Take, for instance, the fact that Facebook’s biggest growing population is in the 55+ age range. What is required is dedication to similar best practices that have been prevalent in good business communication for ages.
What are the best approaches?
There are many good approaches to properly presenting your organization or brand online in the midst of so much chatter, but it always helps to start with the core of any form of social group, be it online or off. A good social media brand presence will entertain, foster a community, and be honest.
A Google search for “social media honesty” returns many cases where being dishonest diminished the public opinion of a company and their firm. The same search also furnishes many authors that provide sound social media advice.
This evidence is largely anecdotal, but it makes sense to assume that providing information that helps educate your followers is a good thing and, in contrast, spinning stories, products, or services into something they are not is a bad thing. This can also apply to social media experts and their messages, be wary of those that make simplistic claims (e.g. “social media is easy,” “it’s hot right now, you should be doing it,” etc).
The idea of building a community and entertaining are tied closely together in all social media approaches. This is actually evident in the history of entertaining commercials. People don’t want to subscribe to or befriend a series of advertisements. The chronological and streaming nature of social media gives you the opportunity to intersperse your promotion with entertaining, informative, or useful information. Promoting others ahead of yourself, if you appreciate what they are doing, is extremely useful. Social media guru Chris Brogan states in his article 25 Ways to Build Your Community, “Promote other people’s work 12 times as much as you promote your own.” If you interact as a member of a community rather than act as an advertiser, people will trust you and your brand more.
This isn’t to say that these are these are the only lessons necessary for success in social media, rather this is a starting point. There are scores of people poised to take advantage of others who see social media as daunting or intimidating. Just the same, there are experts out there who have honed their skills to help others implement and adhere to social media best practices.
photo credit: aussiegall
Amen!
As a corporate marketer, I view Social Media channels as a new-school avenue to the very old-school ideal of customer intimacy. The most successful small business Social Media campaigns I see in Atlanta come from companies that know themselves and are truly interested in knowing their customers.
Learning how to use a Twitter client or setting up a Facebook landing page is simple compared to the discipline of listening and genuinely expressing your corporate culture, warts and all.
Ed
Great sentiments Ed. In the end it’s about consistent, honest, effective communication.